Five from Bengaluru held for cheating investors of Rs 300 cr
Bengaluru: The managing director of a city-based investment company and his four associates were arrested for cheating over 800 investors to the tune of Rs 300 crore by promising high returns.
The incident came to light after P R Balaji, owner of Balaji Agarbatti, filed a cheating complaint with the Banashankari police stating that Vikram Investment took Rs 11.74 crore and never returned the principal amount.
Based on the complaint, the police arrested Ragavendra Srinath M, his associates Narasimha Murthy, Prahalad, KC Nagaraj and Sutram Suresh, a former sports journalist.
A senior police officer said Srinath, MD of Vikram Investments located in Banashankari, had taken money from many people and promised them that he will invest in shares and commodity business, giving them high returns.
Initially, Srinath gave good returns but slowly the margin reduced and finally he even stopped returning the principal amount.
Balaji alleged that he heard about Vikram Investment in 2016. “My brother P R Bhaskar and I contacted Murthy. Murthy asked us to invest in the company for high returns. After meeting Srinath, we invested Rs 11.74 crore in various schemes. Initially, they gave us good returns but later it stopped. When we asked them to return the initial investment, the company ignored us,” Balaji stated in his complaint.
He further alleged that Srinath and Murthy, along with Prahalad, Nagaraj and Suresh have cheated over 800 people.
The accused have revealed the names of investors and the police are contacting the bank officials concerned.
